Peace is Possible in Libya

There can be peace in Libya today. It will take one word from the USA President. “STOP.”

The war there is not productive. The rebels have already lost and the bloodshed would have ended weeks ago. However, they appealed to the Western European countries for what was called humanitarian aid.

At first this may have been the focus but it was not enough to get them to intervene in the civil war within sovereign Libya, a member of the United Nations. But the vast amounts of oil in Libya, which is some of the best quality crude oil in the world, appealed to the greed of oil starved Britain, France and the largest consumer of oil, USA. The appeal of oil was the same as the appeal of blood to a vampire. They could not resist.

So, led by these three, the United nations was convinced to intervene for the “protection of civilian lives.” However, it was a reaction unrealistic to the civil war between Western and Eastern Libya, between the tribes in these regions, between rural and urban Libya and between the central legal government of Libya and the disaffected, disillusioned former Libyan army officers who led a rebel army funded by covert Western money including from the USA.

Why unrealistic? Because UN Resolution 1973 gave too much power to the three counties and NATO. It allowed them to make their own definitions as to who was to be considered a civilian. It allowed them to use ,”…all necessary force” in order to “protect” civilians from harm. Unknown to the UN was the friendship between the French and expatriate Libyan living in Paris. The rebel army is merely an expendable pawn in a war of international greed.

Unknown to the UN was that the USA and the NATO military alliance were going to side with the rebel army against the armed forces of the central Libyan government. I say unknown to the diplomats at the Security Council because the charter of the UN does not allow it to condone the use of military force between members States, when such force is used to overthrow the legal central government of that member State. Unknown to the UN because no one foresaw that Britain, France and the USA would declare that the heavily armed but poorly organized rebel army were civilians and therefore the rebel army and its guns, munitions and military vehicles were to be protected against the legal army of the central government in Tripoli. The fact that this rebel army is not popularly supported, (why is it unable to recruit from the general population in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the government?) and that it is a rag-tag group of former Liyban army officers and their followers has become evident by the massive civilian exodus from Libya to the countries of the surrounding region. The civilians are fleeing the rebel army as much as the central government.

And how can the rebel army, ragtag and under organized as it is, be called civilian? They are armed, they attack the central government, they seize control of cities, they attempt to sell the national resource of oil to Qatar without popular and therefore legal approval. Yet, the NATO powers insist on attacking the army of Libya in order to protect the rebel forces. This cannot be denied by anyone since the NATO powers have publically and repeatedly stated their intentions, and since the rebels have repeatedly stated their disappointment that NATO is not using enough military force to help them defeat the central government.

So, we have the United Nations condoning the use of NATO military force against the legal recognized government of Libya, which is a breach of its own core principles. We have NATO engaged in a regional war without the participation of all member states, and we have the USA supporting the regime change in Libya when President Obama stated that Gaddafi must go.

Now one wonders, with the assassination of the terrorist Osama Bin Laden, whether the USA Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will use military assets like the US Navy Seals to invade Libya, and attack Gaddafi, who is recognized as head of the government there, (let’s not play the fool and say that because he is a dictator he is not the head of government. Just ask all the nations that recognize the ambassador of Libya.) Please note the very high significance of the new relationship between the CIA and the Special Forces Units of the USA regular Navy, Army and Air Force. The command and control of the regular armed forces of the USA by the clandestine CIA is highly irregular. It reminds this writer of reports that the treatment of detainees at Abu Grahib was derected by peersons wearing civilian clothing and who’s orders were not to be disobeyed!! Was the CIA involved in Abu Grahib and the Army took the fall?

Obama can order the assassination of Gaddafi but unlike Osama Bin Laden who was a terrorist but also a civilian and therefore a private citizen, (hey, I don’t like it either but it is a fact. As a terrorist, he wore no uniform and was not a recognized leader of any military force. He was not a head of State in any form ((Al Qaeda is not a government)). And although a terrorist, he could still be defined as a member of homo Sapiens and male and Arab and a Muslim, etc.)

Of course Britain, France, Canada, and Belgium, (the leaders of the NATO operation) all have CIA like agencies and all have special force covert operations teams. Also Russia and Israel have the same. Since these nations have defined the Libyan rebels as civilians, and regard the self-styled “Leader of the Revolution”, Gaddafi, to be a legitimate military target, they could decide to assassinate him. However, the UN resolution does not condone the assassination of the Libyan Head of State. The Russians and others have stated that murdering the Libyan head of State would be illegal. And since the USA is not in a declared war with Libya, and our military must abide by the Nuremberg accords, the Geneva Conventions, and its own Law of Land Warfare manual, it seems that use of USA military forces such as Navy Seals to assassinate the head of the Libyan government would not only be illegal, it would be a terrorist act by our own government against another government. It probably would not be a war crime since by our own statements we are not at war with Libya. However, it might be a war crime since our forces have crossed the borders of Libya through the air, attacked its army and military personnel and bombed its cities and the administration buildings of its government. Such actions by our military personnel without congressional approval and without a publicly stated declaration of war by our forces against their forces is considered by International Law and recognized by our own military to be acts of criminal aggression.

Hey, this article is not a pro Gaddafi article. It is pro America. We are a peace-loving democracy and we want to help others to have the same wonderful democracy as we do. However, in the process of that help we need to watch that we do not fall victim to the idea that “the end justifies the means.” Such legal and moral relativism has consistently been rejected by legal minds and moral leaders. The USA has repeatedly rejected that principle because we recognized that our nation and its leaders are not immune from the requirements of law and morality. (I agree the moral issues can be debated endlessly, that is why we need to adhere to the requirements of the legal issues. And for those Conservative commentators who keep crowing about what they call American Exceptionalism, that is not a credible argument for acting illegally. )

Why am I so keen on keeping the USA within the limits of recognized law, morality and ethics? Because the USA is an exceptional country but our leadership is damaged by recourse to actions which tell everybody that we are above the law. In fact such recourse makes us out laws.

Sadly, in the Libyan conflict, although I am very disappointed that Russia did not veto the UN resolution 1973, nonetheless, they have raised through Putin, objections regarding the conflict and lately made objections to over zealousness by the Canadian led NATO forces as they attempt to destroy the central government of Libya. Personally, I would like the USA to be the one objeting but since we are craven in this regard, I would welcome Russian naval vessels patrolling the Mediterranean Sea near Libya as a warning against possible British, and French contrivance to establish again a colonial imperialist hegemony in North Africa (with covert USA support!).

I dread having written the above paragraph but if the USA will not stop the aggression in Libya, maybe the Russian will do it. After all, Libya is much closer to them than to us and they have large oil interests there under Gazprom. In fact, a Russian naval presence might even serve a warning to Syria to come to grips with the unrest there. Hey, if I were a novelist, I would have the Germans, the Georgians, and the Turks back Russia in such a naval presence which would put teeth in Russian objections to NATO aggression in Libya. In my novel the rationale inside Russia would be regret that they did not veto the whole thing from the beginning and now have found a way to broker progress and peace in the region. In the old days such actions were called realpolitik.

Anyway, this is becoming a doctoral thesis. So, let’s come to the end.

Obama can stop the carnage in Libya by saying to all parties, “Stop.” (I am not an Obama supporter but I sincerely believe the President of the USA can stop this if he has the will to do it.) But he must first decide that he really wants peace, is willing to act as the Nobel Peace Laureate that he is and use the awesome diplomatic authority that is ours to bring about a brokered and fair peace in Libya. That includes a return to first principles, namely, that we do not demand regime change in Libya and it is not our intention to kill Gaddafi, his children or his grandchildren. (I don’t care if no grandchildren were killed, the principle is the same.)

Because Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, he can start fulfilling their expectation by leading peace efforts in Libya. How?

Send a message by official diplomatic courier to Gaddafi saying that this peace effort is real and then prove it by removing USA military Special forces personnel already on the ground in Libya. (If you think that we do not already have SF personnel in Libya thaen you are drinking the cool aid!)

Then ask Gaddafi for his term. YES, his terms. But his terms must allow for non retaliation against the rebel army. Having gotten that far, let our seasoned Libya experts at the State Department go over the terms and counter them, But Obama must insist that our terms include allowing Gaddafi to stay as Leader of the Revolution in Libya while setting up an independent civilian government preparing for internationally supervised elections (send Carter and some Russians).

If we get this far, then we can ask to gain renewal of our defunct oil leases in Libya with a promise to use some of the coporate profits to rebuild Libyan cities and Tripoli for the destruction we caused. (By the way, this also means allowing the new civilian government to rebuild their armed forces, as we do in Iraq!!)

Of course, all of this can fail. It would leave us in a bind. So there must be a second peace plan. However, if we are really big boys and are willing to promote real peace, we will engage the Russians, the Egyptians, the Tunisians, the Turks, etc. in this plan so as to reassure the Libyan government of our sincerity. (all of this without secret protocols,m please. We had enough of that during the colonialist, imperialist, fascist and nazi eras.)

Libyan Government Official

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/04/quote-libya-warns-european-union/36826/

This is a very short article but speaks volumes about the legal government of Libya. After all, we simply must ask the same question. Undoubtedly, it is the French and British need for oil. Hey, the Brits have been stealing things for years. Go to the London museum and see all the stolen art. So too, the French, go to the Louvre and see all the stolen art. It should not surprise us that these colonialist imperialist western powers would use deceit to gain their monetary objectives. After all, why should desert dwelling brown-skinned Muslim tribes people control one of the biggest oil resources and one of the finest quality resources in Northern Africa? What should surprise us is the connivance and complicity of the USA under the Obama Administration.

Does America Really Want to Kill Children?

Twelve days ago, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the Libyan government’s repeated attacks on civilians and civilian facilities in Misrata and warned that these attacks could be treated as criminal.

“Under international law,” said Commissioner Navi Pillay, “the deliberate targeting of medical facilities is a war crime, and the deliberate targeting or reckless endangerment of civilians may also amount to serious violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law.”

Commissioner Navi is absolutely right. Under Section II, Article 85, item 3a of the 1977 Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949: “grave breaches of this Protocol” include “making the civilian population or individual civilians the object of attack.”

This protocol, we might say, is precisely what justifies our own actions in the Libyan conflict. Officially, the only reason for which we launched our attacks on Libya, and for which we now support the NATO airstrikes against it, is to protect its civilian population.

Many suspect that NATO is seeking to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi and will not hesitate to kill civilians in pursuing this end. Last night, a NATO airstrike on the Tripoli home of his youngest son, Seif al-Arab Moammar Gaddafi, failed to hit Gaddafi himself but killed Seif along with three of Gaddafi’s grandchildren.

Can anyone explain to me why this NATO airstrike on the house of Seif Gaddafi did not recklessly endanger the lives of his children, or why the children of Seif Gaddafi are not protected by the 1977 Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, let alone by our official “mission” to protect the civilian population of Libya?

I also have another question. How many more Libyan children are we willing to kill?….The article continues on the Huffington Post

USA, France and Britain Lies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_libya

The NATO alliance and the British government are liars. They said that they wanted to protect civilians and to deliver humanitarian aid. Well, with USA help they delivered that aid on the point of 212 cruise missiles. Then they said that they were not taking sides in an armed rebellion against the recognized government of Libya but they bombed Libyan government buildings, they strafed uniformed Libyan government troops, they destroy well-marked and easily identifiable Libyan military vehicles and tanks, they bombed the home town of Gaddafi trying to break the spirit of his tribal group, they sent advisors to teach the armed rebels how to use modern military equipment supplied to the rebels by “nobody”, the weapons were of a highly sophisticated nature and costing millions of dollars, but they just appear in the rebels hands by a miracle. Now they have killed Gaddafi’s son and his grandchildren in a NATO attack on a so-called military target, which the article described as a family site with video games for the grandkids and bedrooms and gathering areas for the family. I guess the family and the grandchildren and parents are not civilians. I think that NATO is racist enough to tell us that since they were Gaddafi’s family and grandchildren then they deserved to die! This whole Libyan adventure is the result of resource poor Britain and resource poor France and Belgium attempting to seize control of the oil in Libya. The British, Belgian and France Imperialists are helped in the illegal aggression by a compliant USA Obama and a complicit United Nations. ( please read other posts on this site to follow the obvious path of NATO criminal aggression against Libya.) The killing, as described in this article, cannot be excused as collateral damage in wartime. NATO knew the target was civilian in nature, knew that there were other family members there and decided to kill all of them. President Obama knew of the missile attack, he knew of the target, he knew of the possible civilian and infant casualties and under the false neutrality of not being personally involved and while yucking it up with his friend and political supporter, Donald Trump at the comedy dinner, Obama allowed innocent children to be intentionally murdered while he wore a bow tie and told jokes. And if you claim that President Obama did not know or was not complicit in the attacks than you are wrong. He could have stopped all of this weeks ago with a nano second of his time, so the fact that this illegal aggression continues and has now degraded into assassination of foreign heads of State is evidence that Obama is schooled in the “Godfather movie” scenarios of Mafia killings. The moral authority of the USA has been in question since the start of President Obama”s Libyan war. That moral high ground has steadily degraded as it became evident that the USA was willingly involved in a resource war attempting to seize control of another nation’s oil. Today’s murder attack erases any moral authority the USA claimed in this war and together with NATO and even the United nations, this war is clearly seen as blatant criminal aggression of the most egregious type, the type that hides behind the skirts of “International law”. The only salvation for the USA now is for us to lead the way in open, honest peace making with the legal government of Gaddafi. And if you do not think that all along the government of Libya is legal, then read the parts where the Brits are telling the Ambassador of Libya to leave England. And just one last point. It concerns Senator John Mc Cain. What a disappointment he is and what a disgrace as he cheers the attempted assassination of the head of another Nation. It seems that McCain the war hero has become a warmonger. Sad and disgraceful, not only because of McCain’s heroism but because it indicates that he agrees with President Obama that the USA should be a terrorist nation.

USA Not “AT WAR” with Libya!

This is a key issue, no doubt, but an even more serious issue is that President Obama and the Obama administration are carrying out an illegal war in Libya. I deal with this issue on my Word Press blog, “progressive politics” where I have expansive coverage. In essence, the Obama administration did not come to congress when they volunteered to breech the sovereignty of a Sovereign Nation. Libya is recognized around the world as a legal State in the community of nations. It does not matter to the international community that Libyan leader Gaddafi is the “head of the revolution”, which is his self styled moniker. Rather, as recently as last week, the international community recognized the right of the government in Tripoli to appoint ambassadors. The case I am speaking of occurred in Stockholm. The Swedish ambassador from Libya sided with the ragtag rebels against the central government of Libya. The Libyan government under Gaddafi sent a replacement. The Swedish government recognized the replacement and disenfranchised the rebel ambassador. Why does this mean anything? Because it recognizes the present government of Libya as the legal government of Libya. So, now on to the USA, France and Britain. Under the guise of resolution 1973 from the United Nations, the Obama administration has declared “Regime Change” as its’ official policy when President Obama stated that “Gaddafi must go”. Then under the cover of the U. N. resolution 1973 to “…use all means to protect civilians in Libya”, the USA, France and Britain decided that the rebels were civilians and needed to be protected, while the uniformed legal army, navy and air force of Libya were “agents of the dictator” and therefore were to be attacked and destroyed using NATO military power. Then using brutal military force the NATO partners invaded the air space of Libya, bombed its cities, attacked it army, civil governent and killed it’s civilians. All of this under the guise of delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Libya. Since when is humanitarian aid delivered on the tip of 212 cruise missiles? Since it’s inception, this invasion has been a war without a declaration of war. Many bloggers claim that the United Nations resolution 1973 allowing nations to use “…all necessary force” against Gaddafi is legal for USA forces. Not so, the Congress must approve such expenditure of USA military power on foreign adventures against a sovereign nation that has neither attacked us, nor our embassy, nor held our people hostage. Other bloggers have stated that Gaddafi is a legal target since he is the head of state of a nation with which we are at war. However, the USA is not at war with Libya since only the Congress of the USA has the constitutional power to declare war. Yet others, have said that under the understanding of war crimes coming out of WW II and the Nuremberg Trials, plus the Geneva Conventions, and the USA Rule of Land Warfare manuals, USA forces are allowed to attack, destroy and render inoperative the military, civil and legal forces of a nation with which we are at war. However, we are NOT at legal war with Libya. Therefore, I submit that the whole operation of the USA against the internationally recognized government of Libya, (a member nation of the United Nations) is inherently illegal according to USA law,( no Congressional Declaration of War); according to UN law, (which declares that the military forces of members states will not be used to overthrow the governments of other member states), according to the Nuremberg Trials that declared that the military and civil leaders of Germany were criminal aggressors because they invaded another nation (Poland) under the pretense of attack (Russia too?) and according to the USA Rule of Land Warfare that recognizes that a Nation State that is not in a declared war with another Nation State and nonetheless unilaterally and with itself NOT being attacked, attacks, is a criminal aggressor!

Next American Boots on the Ground in Libya

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110420/wl_nm/us_libya_gaddafi_2 So when we read this article we realize the following:

1. We should never have attacked the independent Nation of Libya.

2. The State department is in favor of American boots on the ground in Libya.

3. There is administration plan to get the UN and not the USA Congress to approve our use of American soldiers as “boots on the ground in Libya”

4. Obama CIA advisor says in this article that the USA must be part of a boots on the ground effort to oust Gaddafi from power in Libya and that this CIA advisor thinks it will easy and then we can merely and simply hand off the occupation of Libya to Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia.

5. Key to all of this will war hawk Senator McCain warmongering among the House and Senate Hawks to get into a ground war in Libya.

Please write your congress person and Senator opposing Boots on the ground in Libya.

McCain In favor of war, who’d have Guessed

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110422/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mccain_libya

It is always surprising to this writer that Senator McCain, who personally suffered the cruelty and horror of war, should be a war hawk. It seems that at every turn the US Senator is cheering in favor of war, with its guns, bombs and destruction. It is disheartening to need to repeat so many times, but please remember that the government of Libya is the legal government recognized by the UN, most NATO counties and all international companies doing business with Libya. I don’t know how the Senator entered the sovereign State of Libya? It seems that a no fly zone does not apply to US Senators who are against the legal government. They can fly in without interference from NATO. Now, let’s reverse the scene. Imagine that there was a rebellion of the Union workers party in the USA. Imagine that a Libyan supporter of the rebellion entered the country on a private plane, landed at the rebel hideout and then held a clandestine press conference calling for the overthrow of the US government. What would happen? I believe the US government, would arrest the Libyan for advocating the violent overthrow of the USA. So…okay, the objection my readers make is that the USA is not a dictatorship. But according to the outlined scenario, the rebels in the USA would say that it was a dictatorship and should be overthrown. Now, back to today and reality, Mc Cain should have been arrested by the Libyan Government as a provocateur who advocated the overthrown of the internationally recognized government of Libya. And why wasn’t he? Because he entered the country illegally? Or because he was surrounded by USA secret service agents to protect him? Or because he wasn’t there more than a few hours, in which time he came to a complete, in-depth understanding of all the facts, and decided that the army, navy, and other armed personnel of Libya were bad and needed to be killed by USA drones, bombs, artillery and cruise missiles? I guess the military families of the Libyan government have no feelings, or rights? Let’s just kill them because American Senator John McCain says so! It really is surprising how much Senator McCain is in favor of wanton war. By the way, isn’t there a budget battle raging in the Senate? Isn’t there a need for Republican Senators to be out on the tour promoting the Ryan proposals? Isn’t there a great need for more jobs support efforts from the Senate? Maybe a nice little war in Libya that is costing us millions a day is what Senator McCain feels will fuel a recovery in the US armaments industry? Strange friends, government and armament makers!

Boots on the Ground. No Surprise

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110419/wl_time/httpglobalspinblogstimecom20110419withbritishmilitaryadvisersheadedtobenghazifearsoflibyamissioncreepgrowxidrssfullworldyahoo

They are doing what they intended to do all along. USA must get out of this crazy adventure by a war mongering France and Britain. On this site we have not played up the oil thing but it is becoming obvious that oil poor Britain and oil starved France are willing to use humanitarian assistance lies in order to gain access to and actual control over the largest oil reserves in that area. So big oil is behind these governments. This fits into the kind of Corporatist mentality of Obama that U.S. Senator Rand Paul is talking about elsewhere on this blog. The problem of the Corporatist mentality is that it hides behind social progress which it uses to mislead the citizens. While this propaganda is being broadcast by a compliant media, the administration is secretly dealing with corporation leaders to seize control of the major sources of wealth such as oil. Eisenhower pre-shadowed this problem when he talked about the dangers of secret cooperation between the military and corporations. In the Corporatist model of Obama the military, the corporations and the civil governments are in cooperation to gain extra ordinary and international power for themselves. I know this sounds like conspiracy theory but the lies are now revealed by the behaviors of the NATO military alliance. First, act shocked about organized turmoil in the target State. Second, prepare the public by using media outlets to put forth photos and stories of the terrible human suffering. Third, act righteous and morally indignant while secretly dealing to take full advantage of the crisis. Fourth, bypass legal problems from the legislatures of your nation by appealing to the “New World Order Governments” such as United Nations. Fifth, have all inclusive wording such as UN Resolution 1973 has where it says to use ALL means to protect civilians. Sixth, use that all inclusive language to extend your aggression against the target government. Seventh, define the anti- government forces as “civilian” and therefore “good guys” while defining the legal government forces as “military” and therefore the “bad guys.” Eighth, send in advisers as “boots on the ground ‘teachers'” Ninth, follow up with “rescue” troops to evacuate “civilians” And do all of this while secretly arming the rebels and supplying them the logistical, tactical and strategic means for winning against the government but at the same time INSISTING to the world that you are not doing what is plainly obvious, depending on a weak, compliant and compromised media and press to support your illegal actions. Really, doesn’t this sound like the Colonialists and Imperialists of the Ninetenth century, and the Fascists and Hitlerians of WW II, and the Communists of the Cold War era?

Yes, Let’s Trust the Libyan Government and Stop the Criminal Aggression

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/gaddafi-free-elections-after-conflict/letting-up/?om_rid=NsgG76&om_mid=_BNrtDtB8adH4Jo

Yes, let’s take the chance. (PS) I will comment on this article later today. Here’s the short form, How can we say to the Libyan Government that we are sincere when no matter what they do, we continue to support and arm and train and now have boots on the ground advisors teaching the rebels how to defeat the government? The western nations are being hyper hypocritical here and I wonder why Russia is allowing it? What is the secret deal the Russian President and Russian Prime Minister have cut with NATO. The Russian complicity and the German complicity in this blatant grab for oil is disgraceful. And we thought that the Germans and the Russians had reformed and were now the good guys. Wow, are we dumb!

Libyan War is Really Ugly Western European Aggression.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110419/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_libya_islamic_warrior

The Aggression of the Western Colonialist Imperialist powers of England and France is criminal. I know that my readers are bored with this topic but the criminal French and English will not stop. The constant refrain from NATO is that they are protecting civilian rebels. Well, rebels are not simply civilians. These are people who are not a recognized army, fighting against the central Libyan government. Might we all at least have the integrity to admit, that we are attacking the legal army and government of Libya? So let’s stop the murder that we deliver at the end of 50 caliber bullets, and twenty ton bombs and at least 212- that’s right! two hundred and twelve CRUISE missiles. That is not humanitarian aid. By the way, when was the last time anyone heard of a Libyan government aircraft attacking anybody? The aircraft are mostly destroyed and the no fly zone is totally and completely secured. Again, please write your congress person and stop the USA participation in the killing of innocent people, the killing of the legal soldiers of a sovereign state, (which I repeat is an act of terrorism and criminal aggression because the USA is not in a declared war with the nation of Libya.) Our military leaders are obeying illegal orders to attack across the borders of a country that is at PEACE with the USA…let the Congress tell the USA military that we will not replace the 212 CRUISE missiles. Let us tell our navy we will not replace the bombs. Let us tell our army we will not replace the ammo for the A-10 gunship. That is the kind of talk our military leaders understand and maybe if they cannot get any more of our tax dollars for their pet war in Libya, then they will stop obeying the illegal orders to attack a nation that is at peace with the USA.